1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mollusk openers and particularly to an oyster opening device and more particularly to a safe, oyster-beak opening device that also collects the oysters consumable liquor.
2. Description of Related Art
For many people the process of opening an oyster with a traditional oyster knife is a physically taxing, dexterously difficult, potentially dangerous and time consuming task and one often accompanied by the inadvertent loss of consumable oyster's liquor which is considered a delicacy.
There are numerous approaches that various people employ to facilitate the opening of fresh oysters. Most involve the use of an oyster knife of which there are numerous traditional and contemporary variants. In actual use oyster knives are inserted into the cartilage-filled channel opening at the ‘beak’ of an oyster and then directionally and forcefully manipulated into the cartilage filled gap between the oyster's two opposing half-shells by the user. As the forced tip of the oyster knife gains entrance through the cartilage filled channel that links the oyster's two opposing shell-halves, at some critical point in that process the oyster's two half-shells are forced partially open and then become completely-separated specifically at the oysters beak-point. At that stage of the process the beak of the oyster has been pried open but quite often with the unintended spillage and loss of some or most of the consumable oyster's liquor. To complete the process of totally opening the oyster the remaining task for the user is to cut free the oyster's adductor-muscles which are located within the oyster's bill-section. Cutting those two adductor-muscles frees the oyster from its connection to its shell which then completes the process of fully opening the entire oyster. The process of fully opening the oyster is at that point entirely over and the oyster can then be served for consumption. The complex movements that the user performs with the oyster knife include the use of the user's eyes, wrists, hands, fingers and arms, all of which allow the user of the oyster knife a modicum of directional control, of applied force control and of general and specific motion control.
The opening of an oyster by an experienced oyster shucker who deftly wields an oyster knife may appear to be a simple act, but successfully shucking an oyster is actually a sophisticated, physically demanding and considerably nuanced process requiring skill and experience. Opening an oyster is perceived by many persons as dangerous and opening oysters is, in practice, a potentially dangerous process even for those with much experience. For these and other reasons, inexperienced individuals often find the process of opening an oyster with an oyster knife to be intimidating, difficult, unnerving and sometimes impossible to perform. A result for many people is that the opening of oysters, as a food-preparation-routine, becomes one that they approach with trepidation, or one that they avoid entirely and one that they leave to others with more skill or more nerve to perform for them and frequently at a substantial monetary cost.
Many consumers and lovers of oysters forego their desired ‘at-home’ oyster consumption experiences because of the various difficulties involved with the opening of oyster and as a consequence fewer oysters are sold by the shell fish growers and by the oyster retailing industries than would otherwise be sold if the negative safety issues and the general physical difficulties commonly associated with the opening of oysters by users employing standard oyster knives were somehow negated and alleviated.
Many oyster knives have been fashioned that will open an oyster but none of them capture the oyster's liquor while fully protecting the shucker or user at the same time.
The well documented and widely acknowledged ‘safety problem’ and injury-issue that is commonly associated with the opening of oysters with oyster knives is a direct consequence of a synergy between two of its functional elements, which working together, make the standard oyster knife nothing short of dangerous, even for seasoned oyster shuckers. The combination of an oyster knife's pointed tip and then its overall length, when combined with the forwarding-pressure that a user typically applies via the handle-grip to drive the oyster knife's pointed-tip into the oyster's beak-point creates the potential for accidental slips which lead to hand stabbing injuries, particularly for the novice but even for seasoned and experienced oyster shuckers. If an oyster knife's blade were shorter it would be somewhat safer and less inclined to damage the users supporting-hand during an incident of knife slippage, but a shorter blade could still unintentionally slip-sideways under the rapid movements and forceful pressures typically applied by a user and then slash, puncture and otherwise injure the user.
A shorter oyster knife blade would also become problematic for a user because a longish knife blade is required for cutting-free the oyster's adductor-muscles after the beak of the oyster knife blade has been pried open by the tip of the oyster knife blade. Further, a longish-blade is also often used to ‘flip’ a shucked oyster over to expose the oyster's smother underside in order to create a more visually appealing presentational arrangement which is commonly done in fine dining settings, including many restaurants.
There are several deficiencies of design and safety-issue problems associated with modern and historical oyster opening knives. By its nature an oyster knife is charged with performing at least three unique and separate functions, some of them incompatible and leading to user safety issues and often working at odds with one another as well, while causing the difficult usage and safety problems that are historically associated with typical oyster knives.
Furthermore, typical traditional oyster knives do not provide a means for the collection and storage of consumable oyster's liquor which is frequently spilled and lost during the opening of oysters with standard oyster opening knives.
Therefore it is desirable to have a device that can efficiently pry open the oyster's beak, collect and store the oyster's liquor, and protect a user from being injured while using said device to open an oyster's beak section.